Children's book recs?

[potofsoup]

Hey folks,

Miss Rutabaga has learned to read! It's been kind of intense -- one month ago, she was still barely piecing sentences together, and now she's reading whole paragraphs! She's reading Curious George and the Richard Scarry books by herself, it's absolutely adorable. She's always like "I just want to look at the pictures, no reading" and then a minute later she's reading the whole thing, murmuring under her breath.

So anyway, I was in NO WAY prepared for this, especially since our local library remains closed/for pickup only, and therefore I can't drag her there and have her browse for actual books. (Also, going to the library is a Hoosband activity, and he's the one with the library card, but he's currently too busy/anxious to submit a library pull list.) Miss Rutabaga seems to particularly enjoy comics, but she's also 4, so slice-of-life elementary school drama is right out. Same with dour attempts to tell the story of George Washington or some such. I'm trying to see if there's any books I can buy that would be read more than once.

Does anyone have book recs? She likes animals and construction vehicles and silly things, as a 4yo would. She doesn't like when people get in trouble. (Example is that she doesn't watch Moana because Moana was in trouble with her dad, i.e. her dad was angry with her.) There should be lots of pictures, and the words shouldn't be unnecessarily fancy (as in, using "peril" when "danger" does just fine)

Comments

[conuly]

It's been a long time since I was picking up picture books for the kiddos, but you can't go wrong with Frog and Toad for that reading level. I'll go through my old goodreads list, pick out a few winners.

[potofsoup]

Thank you! Aaaah Frog and Toad! I remember reading the Wind in the Willows and being very confused that they weren't Frog and Toad.

[conuly]

Or the Ting and Ling books by Grace Lin.

[potofsoup]

:thumbsup: Added to my list!

[katherine]

I'm not sure of reading level on these, but result of a search for Richard Scarry and readers advisory:

a blog entry Non-Terrible Truck Books

Your local library may have suggestions (their websites or catalogues often have lists) or be able to provide some even without going in in person.

[potofsoup]

oooo cool! And yeah, I'll look up my library services again. :)

[lou2]

These will likely be way too easy for her, but the stories are truly adorable and heartwarming. These are definitely stilly animal stories, but they are also about friendship and being kind to one another.
Gossie, Gossie and Gertie, Oliie, Ollie the Stomper by Olivier Dunrea
There were more after that as well, but these were the ones that were published when my youngest first started reading.

[potofsoup]

Oh my they do look absolutely adorable! I may get a few digitally. Thank you!

[conuly]

They *are* adorable. If you want more books on that level, less adorable but super funny are the Piggie and Elephant books by Mo Willems. I didn't suggest them upthread because they're really for an earlier stage, but you never outgrow good books.

[potofsoup]

Yeah, I find them to be a bit simplistic, and Miss Rutabaga would probably read through one in about 2 minutes (we read through one of Mo Willems' pigeon ones very quickly when we were at Target). But I found a compendium of 4 or 5 for $9, so I ordered that

[goss]

Nothing helpful to add - just here to squee about how much I LOOOOOVE Richard Scarry books. They made such an impact on me as a child. <33333

[potofsoup]

haha, they are so charmingly ridiculous! And the images are so fun to explore! Some of the gender things are a little :/ nowadays, but other than that it's been fun. :D

[goss]

I don't remember much about the gender stuff, but I loved all the little villages and jobs and cars and bustling worlds that seemed so alive. :)

[potofsoup]

Yeah! It's really fun! The gender stuff is mostly stuff that assumes that the mom is the one who takes care of the household and the dad is the one who is absent-minded and works outside the household.

[gingicat]

Drat, I just gave away a bunch of appropriate books.

Seconding Frog and Toad, especially for the problem-solving.

What about a subscription to Babybug? I read the magazines with both kids and may have enjoyed them more than they did.

Tomie di Paola's poetry and illustration is good.

Ezra Jack Keats, of course.

[potofsoup]

I'm getting Frog and Toad, deffo.

I got here a subscription to Click (which she likes) and to Ladybug, which has been more hit-and-miss.

Ah! I should remember to add Ezra Jack Keats to the list!

[conuly]

If she's reading already, Spider or Ladybug is more appropriate than Babybug.

[dhampyresa]

Pénélope Bagieu's Culottées (I believe it was published in English as Brazen), maybe?

[przed]

You can't go wrong with anything my Mo Willems. We started out with Knuffle Bunny, which is hilarious and adorable. The other two Knuffle Bunny books are equally good, but I'll warn you that as a parent the last one will make you tear up a little bit.

We also all adore Williem's Elephant and Piggie books. We Are in a Book is amazingly meta for a kid's book, but every book in the series was awesome. We kept buying them long after Ros was too old for them because we all loved them dearly.

[potofsoup]

wow this is the 4th suggestion for Mo Willems! :D

[przed]

I wasn't sure if Willems would be a bit too simple, but his books had remarkable staying power in our house.

Also, we took Ros to a reading he did, and he had the best instructions for a Q&A. "This is a Q&A, which means you ask questions and I answer them. I have a pony is not a question." Now, every time I'm at an event with a Q&A and someone asks a long, rambling non-question, "I have a pony is not a question," pops into my head. :D

[potofsoup]

haha. We read through one of his Pigeon ones rather quickly when we were browsing books at the Target, so I wasn't quite willing to shell out $18 for that, but I found some compilations that are 4-5 stories for $9, which is a much better price.

[przed]

Ros never got into the Pigeon books. Though one of the little kids next door is obsessed with them. I found we had a Pigeon activity book that Ros had used exactly one page of and passed it on, and he was mega excited.

Elephant and Piggie don't look impressive at first, but they're very clever and super sweet. (Another Mo Willems-ism from when we saw him: "These books are easy readers. Which means they're hard writers." Ain't it the truth.)

[potofsoup]

haha I believe it! I'm very picky about easy reader books -- some of them claim to be easy reading and I'm like "you just used a word where the letter c appears in all 3 syllables with 3 different sounds."

[mystrana]

The Elephant and Piggie books get a LOT of re-reads here in our house as well as Frog and Toad!
Also the Little Blue Truck books.
Some others that the kids have requested over and over and over that I don't know if they're technically early readers or not:
A Dark, Dark Cave by Eric Hoffman
Tidy by Emily Gravett
Wild by Emily Hughes